Archive for SUSAN
August 29, 2008 at 5:57 am · Filed under choreographers, SUSAN, awards, los angeles, event, tutus
(Photo courtesy of danceheritage.org)
On Saturday 13 September, Edward Villella will be honoured at the ninth annual Los Angeles Dance Invitational with an LADI Award for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement. He will also be presenting the Stanley Holden Award for Distinguished Teaching to Los Angeles-based Terri Best on behalf of his late friend.
The evening will also feature works by Terri Best, Genevieve Carson, Marie de la Palme, JT Horenstein, Kim Eung Hwa, Malathi Iyengar, Linda Lack, Christopher Liu, Jose Reynoso and Jia Wu.
To find out more about the event, please visit the official website.
In the meantime, this is pretty neat:
Trees in tutus.
Recent Posts by susan kim
August 28, 2008 at 6:18 am · Filed under architecture, SUSAN, theatre, education, school, NYU, susan kim, ethan stiefel, columbia university, theater, north carolina school of the arts
News très exciting: Tomorrow, I become a bulldog!
A Yale Bulldog, that is. (The more appropriate expression is, I think, “Yalie”?)
In no more than seven hours from now, I will officially join the Theater Management department at the Yale School of Drama. (Yea!) The three-year graduate program was one of quite a number of amazing opportunities that were presented to me in the early months of this year. (It broke my heart to turn down the other offers extended to me; I can only hope to be so fortunate in three years’ time.) The notoriously demanding and rigorously intense programme at YSD certainly promises to challenge me in ways that I’ve never before been challenged. Consider, for instance, my first (hunormous) hurdle: catching up on a lifetime’s worth of theatrical history and dramatic knowledge. (Eeps!)
I’ve so many ideas floating about in my head that I want to share. These I will save for another time and for a separate post. For now, my thoughts are buried beneath renewed impressions of Yale University and the town of New Haven, Connecticut. (The luxury of first impressions was, for me, exhausted during my many visits here during my brother’s time as an undergraduate student at Yale College.)
Still, the architecture of the school and the beauty of the neighbouring town never fail to strike a certain awe. Here are some glimpses:
The ever-dominant (and always-domineering) Harkness Tower.
Phelps Gate–the official entrance to Old Campus.
The Bridge of Sighs
The gate leading into Memorial Quadrangle.
Saybrook Tower.
Memorial Hall at an angle.
The New Haven Green.
More to come in a later post (though, hopefully, at an earlier hour).
Wish me luck for tomorrow!
Recent Posts by susan kim
July 6, 2008 at 9:14 am · Filed under SUSAN, new york city, abt, performance, advice, audience, audiences, american balet theatre
The other night, I returned home after an evening of ballet-ing in an unusually funky mood. (Suffice it to say that the company in the seats beside me were far less pleasant than the excellent company on stage.)
Imagine my surprise, then, when I began flipping through the program a few days later to discover an interesting addition to that evening’s playbill. Because Volpe is so much more elegantly eloquent than I am—but, mainly, because I adore his graceful use of the (ghastly) “heinous”—I wanted to share his thoughts on:
I shall spare you the lengthy rant about the obvious blight of ringing cell phones or the agony of late arrivals stepping on our toes or that awkward moment when you find your orchestra seats being warmed by sheepish looking third balcony hopefuls. That said, let’s review the more obscure yet heinous crimes that might send us fleeing back to our home surround-sound and plasma-screen systems, and far from live performances that require us to be a part of a civilized communal experience.
Gentlemen, if you must snore, make sure your companion has sharp elbows.
Fanny packs are never an acceptable “Performing Arts” accoutrement, save it for the mall.
Humming is a crime that is almost forgivable as it’s committed unconsciously. Still, never, ever, hum along with the music—the musicians really don’t need your help.
Never leave a performance before intermission, unless you are injured and bleeding profusely. While you may be “bloody bored,” those around you are not.
Ladies, please do not bathe in your Clive Christian No. 1 perfume prior to a performance. Gentlemen, you might want to skip the cologne altogether; you are in close quarters, not the French Quarter.
Refrain from leaping to one’s feet, zealously clapping and shouting “Bravo,” while the rest of us are still waiting to hear the last glorious notes of the aria.
Dress Appropriately. We all know that casual attire is encouraged these days, but let’s keep casual from becoming catastrophic. Shorts and a tank top might be appropriate in Branson, Missouri, the home of country music, but not in Avery Fisher Hall, the Home of the New York Philharmonic. We must keep the concert halls alive by our patronage for the next generation. As a young man I would attend such transporting musical evenings wearing a borrowed jacket and dress pants purchased from the Salvation Army. I made an effort despite my “standing room” or “student ticket” status and rose to the occasion on limited funds while showing respect for the performers and fellow audience members.
There is no substitute for a live performance, whether it is ballet, classical, jazz or soul. Miss Aretha Franklin demands, and gets, what she literally spells out for us—R-E-S-P-E-C-T. And that’s what other audience members and the performers on stage deserve from all of us.
I’m embarrassed to admit that I am guilty of (at least!) one of the above violations. (Oof!)
I wonder if this strikes a chord with anyone else?
Am I an anomaly in thinking that being in the house for an evening’s performance is just as challenging (in different ways, of course) as being on the stage?
Recent Posts by susan kim
June 15, 2008 at 6:50 am · Filed under dance, SUSAN, mobile, swan lake, estonia
in Tallinn!
The lake–actually known as Swan Lake by the Estonians (for the swans that dwell within)–is said to have been Tchaikovsky’s inspiration for his ballet of the same name!
Recent Posts by susan kim
June 1, 2008 at 10:54 pm · Filed under ballet, dance, new york city ballet, dancers, media, video, podcast, SUSAN, dance and technology, abt, youtube, myspace, companies, marketing, dance companies, dance online, american ballet theatre, so you think you can dance, internet
The Arts & Music section of today’s Los Angeles Times takes a look at the growing popularity of Internet publicity among dancers and dance companies.
The YouTube video that seems to have prompted the article:
The connection between the video above and the rest of the article is, to me, a little fuzzy. Overall, though, the article is pretty neat. Especially cool is that Looseleaf recognizes certain notables, including Daniil Simkin, Rolando Sarabia, Anaheim Ballet, Grover Dale’s Answers4Dancers and, of course, New York City Ballet’s website and YouTube channel. (Congrats, Kristin!)
The full text of the article follows below for anyone who might be interested. Take a read!
My favourite quote: Asked what company co-founder and choreographer George Balanchine would have thought about the Internet, [NYCB’s General Manager Ken] Tabachnick replies, “He was an innovator. Balanchine loved change and didn’t shy away from new things. I imagine he would have loved it.”
:-)
Read the rest of this entry »
Recent Posts by susan kim
May 12, 2008 at 10:57 pm · Filed under dance, books, SUSAN, mobile
This is a quick snapshot of the Barnes & Noble shelves over which I used to hover during my high school days. The shelves now labeled “Theater Arts” used to be the “Dance” library.
How sad… I wonder what happened to the dance books (and if they still carry them).
Tres triste…
Recent Posts by susan kim
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